Summer Skate series index
Although the weather doesn't necessarily make us think of winter pursuits, it's a good time to take the temperature of every NHL team. Hockey Prospectus will guide us through the leaguewide tour and spotlight one player trending up and one player trending down for each club, as well as a key statistic as we look ahead to the 2014-15 season. References will be made to goals versus threshold (GVT), a Hockey Prospectus proprietary statistic; for more on GVT, click here. All other advanced stats are courtesy of Stats.HockeyAnalysis.com.
Another down year for the Calgary Flames resulted in a front-office shake-up. President of hockey operations Brian Burke fired general manager Jay Feaster and hired former Arizona assistant GM Brad Treliving to handle the club's rebuild.
The Flames have a few nice pieces, including a solid top pair of defensemen in Mark Giordano and T.J. Brodie, and a promising young scorer in Sean Monahan. Otherwise, well, there is a long way to go before Calgary can put a legitimately competitive team on the ice again.
Oddly enough, that isn't such a bad thing in 2014-15. The Flames are in a good position to finish last in the NHL and have the highest chance at winning the Connor McDavid lottery. For the future of the franchise, finishing 30th is the best option, no matter how much Burke will want to compete.
Trending Up: Mikael Backlund, F
Last season: 7.9 GVT
VUKOTA Projection: 8.4 GVT